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Title: help with a historic fashion show
Post by: tleve on May 22, 2007, 06:58:14 PM

hello everyone , I am hoping that a few of you might be able to help me with an event . I am looking to host a historic fashion show with clothing ( women , children , men ) of all time periods . I haven't had much luck locating anyone who would be willing to help provide the clothing that is needed. So i am hoping that posting here will help with this . The show would be in the Northern New Jersey area , a date has not been set since i don't have enough clothes to even have a small show . I am also hoping that i would be able to ? Barrow ? these items at no cost . For more info just email me and i will be happy to help .

Title: Re: help with a historic fashion show
Post by: Mohawk161 on May 29, 2007, 09:39:11 AM

Tleve,

I commend you for trying. But, what you are asking is, though good for it's purpose, going to be a very hard sell as you have already found. As one who makes 18th century clothing for museums and reenactors, I can give you a couple of reasons as to why you are having such trouble:

1- Most folks don't have 2 or 3 outfits and we are now in the begining of the start of the reenactmen season. So, folks might not want to lend things out if they need them for an event.

2- The fear of the unknown: By this I mean the person's equipment. As one who has done films and the like, film companies always want to "borrow" things for their shots. Problem is, the equipment is often ruined or severly damaged. Not to say you would do this at all given the purpose of your show but the thought still lingers in folks's minds.

3- Unlike some other periods of reenacting, there is no real "reenactor stor for the native american" All of the items are hand made, and at least with my equipment, I have to spend days worth of time in the woods collecting materials just to make a piece. Therefore, much of the equipment is irreplacable and often extreemly expensive.

I do wish you the best of luck with your project though. A suggestion might be to line some folks up to show up to the event with their clothing on themselves. This will ease the inhibitions mentioned above and will also serve to show your "clients" how the equipment/clothing is worn properly. I hope this helps.

Joshua

Title: Re: help with a historic fashion show
Post by: tleve on May 29, 2007, 05:43:08 PM

thank you , and i do understand the concerns . I would love to have the owners of these clothing items be willing to model the outfits them selves . I am also not really worried about how much or how many groups of reneactor that there are in any area . I am looking to show differnt periods of history through the clothing and if people happen to get intrested in reenacting the more the better.